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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26137909">An Empty Coffin</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nutrig/pseuds/nutrig'>nutrig</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work, nashira</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/M, One Shot, Original Fiction</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:21:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>500</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26137909</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nutrig/pseuds/nutrig</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Mercedes and Zeus have a talk in the Old Fellows Cemetery.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>zercy, zeusxmercedes</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>An Empty Coffin</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my first time posting + sharing my shorter works so please enjoy! These two are both characters from my story Nashira. This isn't canon to the original story.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What did you want from me, anyway? You asked for me, and here I am.”</p>
<p>Zeus is laying on a grave, His emerald eyes lined with charcoal, his lips blue from the cold. His shirt rode up his body, exposing the old scars that wrapped around his thin waist. “Hm,” he looked up at her, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight. “I asked for you, and here you are. Why are you here, Mercedes? Ah... Do you think you’re here for love?” He smiles forlornly. “What a joke.”</p>
<p>She frowned, wishing he would refrain from reading her mind. “So? Why have you called me, then?”</p>
<p>Under his sad smile was a grimace. “Be wary. He’s hiding something. That is what I have called you here to tell you.” He was trying to fish dirt out from under his fingernails. </p>
<p>“Who? Adrian? Please, I have had enough of this drama for one day.” Mercedes sighs, and with it, the ends of her hair are blown from her face before gently landing again. “That is not why you called.”</p>
<p>He stares at her, melancholy in his eyes. “What if I just wanted a friend?”</p>
<p>“You never just want a friend,” she remarks, sitting down next to him. “You want a warm body to sleep next to.”</p>
<p>Zeus sighs. “I could get a warm body anywhere,” he replies. “I want you.”</p>
<p>“I thought you didn’t call me for love.”</p>
<p>“I said you’re not here for love,” he corrected.</p>
<p>Mercy huffed. “Stop it. What do you actually want? You want this to keep happening? Get up, off that poor soul’s grave.”</p>
<p>Zeus did as she requested. “It’s an empty grave,” he replies. “They’re not actually dead.”</p>
<p>“How would you know?” </p>
<p>He only gave her a look. “I buried an empty coffin and helped him escape the country.” Mercedes didn’t know if Zeus was joking. She’d prefer not to know.</p>
<p>Zeus stands up, moves closer to her. “Every time you will kiss someone else, you will be thinking of me. I know it.” </p>
<p>Her heart moved up into her throat. “I thought we were moving past this.”</p>
<p>“There is no moving past it, Merce. What’s so bad about this?”</p>
<p>She takes a shaky breath. “Zeus, please.”</p>
<p>He shakes his head. “You can pretend that nothing happened, but it did, okay? Meeting you changed everything for me, and I know it was the same for you. You’re scared, yes, but I am here.”</p>
<p>She took a step back. “No. You are never here. That’s the problem with you, Zeus. You’re always away - always crying, always angry. So hot and cold, but I don’t need that in my life.”</p>
<p>He blinked, his emerald eyes full of anguish, his hands reaching to hers. “Just for a night, Mercy. Be my friend for a night. I need you.”</p>
<p>She lets his hands go. “What you need is something I cannot offer.”</p>
<p>She turns away, the only noise is that of her footsteps growing ever fainter on the cemetery hill.</p>
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